Research Centers & Institutes

CNS Centers and Institutes are critical elements in maintaining excellence and enhancing the research environment of the University.

By promoting externally-funded projects and strengthening the collaboration between graduate students and faculty, these research hubs have become essential in fostering innovative scholarship and ground-breaking discovery in a wide range of disciplines.

Institute of Diversity Sciences

Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT)

Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT) enables dramatic scientific advances in many areas of astronomy using the world's largest single dish telescope operating at millimeter wavelengths; a collaboration between UMass Amherst and Mexico.

Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station

Mass CAM: Center for Autonomous Materials

Mass CAM: Center for Autonomous Materials offers interdisciplinary expertise at the interface between soft, biological materials and quantum-mechanical, electronic materials to develop a new paradigm of electronics manufacturing.

Center for Rural Massachusetts

Conte Anadromous Fish Laboratory

Conte Anadromous Fish Laboratory focuses on the ecology, physiology, and behavior of Atlantic salmon and other anadromous fish species, and on biological and engineering issues of upstream fish passage in the Connecticut River watershed.

Cooperative for Marine Education and Research (CMER)

Cooperative for Marine Education and Research (CMER) fosters collaboration in marine research between NFMS Northeast Marine Fisheries Science Center at Woods Hole and UMass faculty and students–ranging from ecological studies of fish species to food science issues with seafood products to human dimensions of subsistence fishing.

The Environmental Institute (TEI)

Family Forest Research Center (FFRC)

Family Forest Research Center (FFRC) conducts research that helps understand the social and economic dimensions of family forestry to promote sustainable forest management for landowners, communities, and society; a collaborative effort with the Department of Environmental Conservation, and the USDA Forest Service.

Harvard Forest

Harvard Forest researches the impact of natural and human-caused disturbances on forests; an NSF Long Term Ecological Research site.

New England Research Institute for Moose and Forest Dynamics

Northeast Center for Urban and Community Forestry

Northeast Center for Urban and Community Forestry provides a regional voice for urban forestry initiatives in the Northeast; a cooperative partnership between UMass Amherst, the USDA Forest Service, the Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry, and the seven states of New England and New York.

Watershed Education and Technology Partnership

Watershed Education and Technology Partnership protects aquatic ecosystems and public water supplies and works with the needs of natural resource managers, environmental regulators, policy makers, and the public; a joint venture between UMass Amherst and the U.S. Forest Service Northeastern Area of the State and Private Forestry.